More than 15,000 migrants have so far been approved for New Zealand residency under a special class of visa introduced late last year.
The 2021 Resident Visa was introduced to assist migrants who were mostly on work visas to apply for residency if they had already been living in this country for at least three years on September 29 last year.
This could potentially fast track residency for up to 165,000 migrants already in NZ.
Applications for the new visa opened on December 1 last year and run until July 31 this year, with Immigration NZ receiving nearly 30,000 applications in December alone.
The rush of applications has caused problems for medical centres providing the medical certificates that must accompany visa applications.
Many were already being stretched by Covid-related work and some have struggled to cope with the sudden influx of migrants seeking medical certificates.
As a result, Immigration NZ says applicants no longer need to submit their medical certificates and other necessary documents with their applications.
They can now submit their application first and then submit the supporting documents later, when they are advised that their application is ready to be processed.
"This will help ease the demand that immigration panel physicians have been experiencing in recent weeks," Immigration NZ Head of Digital and Programmes Darren Calder said.
So far, about 7000 applications have been approved, resulting in more than 15,000 people including applicants' family members, becoming residents.
Another 2500 applications have been approved pending payment of the appropriate fees.
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